SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES

Updated 10:00 pm, Friday, April 29, 2005

Apple Computer Inc. yesterday started selling Tiger, its newest operating system for Macintosh computers, which features an integrated search engine for the hard drive and a litter of small applications that the firm calls "widgets."

The new Mac OS X version 10.4 is available at Apple's retail stores and authorized dealers.

Although the software product has more than 200 new features, the Cupertino, Calif., firm has been touting Spotlight, a new search function that helps users to find files such as documents, songs, photos and movie clips more easily.

Spotlight is like Google for your hard drive. As you type into the Spotlight box in your menu bar, a tidy menu instantly drops down. It lists every file, folder, program, e-mail message, address book or calendar entry, photograph, PDF document and even font that contains what you typed, regardless of its name or folder location. This isn't just a fast Find command. It's an enhancement that's so deep, convenient and powerful that it threatens to reduce the 20-year-old Mac/Windows system of nested folders to irrelevance. Why burrow around in folders when you can open any file or program with a couple of keystrokes?

For example, tapping Command and the space bar highlights the Spotlight box. So if you hit Command-Space and type "Schw," the list shows every e-mail Arnold Schwarzenegger sent to you, every appointment you've got with him and, of course, his address book entry. It's all organized neatly by category; a quick click or keystroke opens the item you want.

You can also save a Spotlight search as a "smart folder," a self-updating folder that always contains stuff that matches certain criteria -- for example, all documents created in the past week containing the phrase "wombat mating habits."

Unfortunately, Spotlight can't "see inside" many programs other than Apple's, although that will change as software companies upgrade their wares. For example, Spotlight can search the contents of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, but doesn't yet see the messages in Microsoft's Entourage e-mail program.

The second-most heavily hyped Tiger feature is called Dashboard. It's a constellation of gorgeous miniprograms that appear or disappear en masse when you touch a selected key. They include real-time stock tickers, weather forecasts and airline flight information, along with a calculator, dictionary, Yellow Pages and other doodads. They're handy enough. But Dashboard isn't a Tiger exclusive; the shareware program Konfabulator, available for Windows and older Mac OS versions, does pretty much the same thing.

Some of the most groundbreaking new Tiger features are barely mentioned in Apple's marketing. For example, the new parental controls let you specify which e-mail correspondents, chat buddies, Web sites and even programs are OK for your children. Older children may find the "whitelist" approach overly limiting, but the design is otherwise clean, effective and beautifully integrated.

Then there's security. Tiger is the most impenetrable Mac system yet, filled with new defenses against the dark arts. Messages alert you -- a little annoyingly, actually -- every time you download a file that could theoretically contain a virus (because it contains a runnable program, even if it's compressed). And a new "stealth mode" in Tiger's built-in firewall makes your Mac invisible to ping signals from Internet predators hunting for computers to infect.

Mac OS X's built-in programs have been upgraded, too. Of these, iChat AV, which permits free audio and video phone calls over the Internet, is the most spectacular. Up to 10 people can join a single audio conversation.

Analysts say it is important for Apple, which represents roughly 2 percent of the PC market, to continue pushing the envelope and coming up with improvements. Still, analysts say, while the new operating system could help it gain more customers, Apple has an uphill battle.

"I don't think (Tiger) is enough for people who have not thought about Apple to all of a sudden buy an Apple computer," said Munster of Piper Jaffray. "But for those who have been thinking about it, sitting on the fence, this might push them over."